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Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Tuesday, September 1st: Psalms 135-136, 2 Corinthians 11:1-15 ~ Tammy

In Psalm 135 we see that stark contrast between almighty God and powerless idols. In our society today we don't fashion idols the way they did when this psalm was penned, but we make idols of things we think will give us power or happiness, but they are just as impotent as idols made of silver or gold.

In Psalm 136 we see the phrase "for His steadfast love endures forever" repeated over and over - likely as a congregational responsive reading. Truly, His love will never run out. His love includes kindness, mercy, and faithfulness; as well as acts of power and wrath. We cannot define love as the world does - which often consists of simply caring about someone else as long as they make you happy, or tolerating everything as long as you don't declare anything to be absolute truth. We must define love as God does, as God IS. So thankful for (as the Jesus Storybook Bible puts it) His Never Stopping, Never Giving Up, Unbreaking, Always and Forever Love

In our 2 Corinthians passage Paul is once again warning the Corinthians about the dangers of false teachers. We see so much of that in the church today too and unfortunately, even strong believers are falling for teachings that sound so close to the truth, but are twisted just enough to be very dangerous indeed. This is Satan's clear strategy. No believer even half way grounded in the Bible will fall for an outright lie, but they may be deceived by smooth words that sound like the truth. We must be so careful to test what preachers/teachers say against the Word of God.

I've sometimes heard people say things like "I know he teaches some things that are not biblical, but overall his message is so upbeat and makes me feel good, surely God is still using him for some benefit." But the truth is, if there are some things that you know for sure are unbiblical, how can you trust anything that preacher teaches anymore? You can't! But we are so hesitant to "judge". Paul, however, did not hesitate at all to declare these teachings false and to warn against them in the strongest possible terms. Dare we think we are somehow "better" than Paul by not judging? Paul is being very blatant and leading by example here. If we are aware of false teaching, we must speak out against it. People's spiritual lives are at stake and that is not a time to keep silent. That is peace at much too high a cost.

3 comments:

26 Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Forever. It's hard to comprehend.

I think it is true that lies that sound like truth are the most convincing and can lead us astray. I think this also fits in with what I wrote yesterday that while it is good to live in unity, it should not be at the expense of not standing up for the truth.